а раньше на сайте скотта

[moveforever]

было все немного по другому
до осени 2007, там были разделы с фотками из детства и юности, которых сейчас вроде нет, были ссылки на фанатские квировские ресурсы, и был журнал, который он вел с октября 2001 до ноября 2002
там не очень много о кафе, хотя я просматривала текст даже не по диагонали а вообще кусочками пока, и текста много, но я не буду делать выборку, а выложу все целиком, как было.

но сначала несколько фоток

детство

Just two shots here. Both from when I attended Interlochen camp for the arts (in Michigan) when I was 12. One shot shows me in rehearsal for "Rip Van Winkle" my very first play. I played Rip after he woke up from his 20 year nap...already playing the "Old Guy." Doing this play is what made me decide to be an actor. The other shot shows me practicing my French Horn in one of Interlochen's bunkers...uh, I mean practice rooms.





Scott Says: The NEMC shot is of my cabin at New England Music Camp when I was 13 or 14 can't remember. It's kind of like a "Where's Waldo." See if you can find me. I was a leader of the cabin!




High School Photos

Scott Says: My first big romantic "lead" as a Prince who falls in love with a barmaid while in college in Hamburg. I sang notes so high in this show, my voice has never recovered.


Scott Says: Fantasticks: Already I've perfected my "what the f#$k" look in this shot (it's now known as a #29 special).



Scott Says: Grease: Me as Teen Angel. I've included the "review" next to the shot 'cause it' SO over-the-top. I must have payed the reviewer off. I think it's the only "rave" I've ever gotten.





Scott Says: A photo that was supposed to be used in the school paper for a weekly cloumn I was supposed to do. It ended up being a one-shot thing.



Scott Says: This was a Sondheim Musical review I wrote, directed and starred in (gee, and I'm playing a gay man now??? Really???) with a bunch of my friends. It got me out of all my classes last semester of Senior year. Hee hee hee.



а это из раздела Scott the Photographer

TV Cares Event







QAF Season Two Wrap Party(ренди оттуда все помнят, в полосатой кофте, чб фотка, а вот еще мишель)

[URL=www.radikal.ru][/URLKey makeup artist Stephen Lynch and Michelle


ну и ЖУРНАЛ СКОТТА (все не лезет, продолжение в каментах)

JOURNAL

From October 2001 to November 2002, Scott kept an online journal. In June of 2003 after six months with no new entries, he decided to officially close it due to lack of time and a desire to focus his writing on plays and screenplays. After a year and a half, the archives of his old journal are again available for reading. Use the menu on the left to select the journal entries you would like to read. Entries have not been altered from their original content except to remove dead links. At this time, Scott does not intend to post new entries to his journal, although any messages he has for his website visitors will be archived here

JOURNAL: SEPTEMBER 30, 2001

Hello and welcome to ScottLowell.com! How odd to be even typing that domain name. For all the fans who have asked me to put together something like this I hope you enjoy it. Let's all make sure we bow down to Web-Mistress Annie for putting the site together. *Thunderous Applause* She's really created a cool site, I think. I'm VERY excited about it ... and for me to be this excited on the internet and not have it involve porn is REALLY saying something! I hope for a long time to come it will provide a way for us all to stay in touch and for me to let you know what I'm up to.
I've been back in Toronto since mid-August starting work on Season 2 of QAF. It's been really great to be back and to see so many familiar faces on the set. Many of our wonderful crew left work on other projects to come back and work with us again. I'm getting all misty just thinking about that. The work has gone along at its usual grueling pace (14 - 18 hour days) but our spirits remain high. Toronto is an incredible city (much like my old home Chicago) and I recommend a visit to anyone who has never been here ... before the temperature drops below zero.
We were shooting some exterior scenes on 9/11/01 as events were unfolding down in the US. I never felt so far away from home. We suspended shooting for the day as it all of a sudden seemed kind of stupid to be making a TV show in light of the cruelty that had occurred. The cast and producers gathered back at my apartment here. We spent all day watching CNN in shock, waiting to get through to our friends and loved ones in NYC. By evening everyone was accounted for. I hope the same is true for all of you.
It took me a few days to feel comfortable "acting" while the world seemed to be crumbling. A beautiful friend of mine sent me the following quote that really helped. I hope it makes anyone out there questioning the role of creativity in this world feel a renewed sense of purpose.
Note from Provincetown Players 1918
"Seven of the Provincetown Players are in the army or working for it in
France, and more are going. Not light-heartedly now, when civilization
itself is threatened with destruction, we who remain have determined to go
on next season with the work of our little theatre. It is often said that
theatrical entertainment in general is socially justified in this dark time
as a means of relaxing the strain of reality, and thus helping to keep us
sane. This may be true, but if more were not true--if we felt no deeper
value in dramatic art than entertainment--we would hardly have the heart
for it now. One faculty, we know, is going to be of vast importance to the
half-destroyed world--indispensable for its rebuilding--the faculty of
creative imagination. That spark of it which has given this group of ours
such life and meaning as we have is not so insignificant that we should now
let it die. The social justification which we feel to be valid now for
makers and players of plays is that they shall help keep alive in the world
the light of imagination. Without it the wreck of the world that was cannot
be cleared away and the new world shaped."
Until next we type.
Peace,
Scott Lowell

JOURNAL: OCTOBER 7, 2001

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving, eh! More than cooked Canadian Goose it means a long weekend for me and I couldn't be happier. The past week left me pretty exhausted but absoluteley fulfilled. After having to delay shooting for more than a week due to rain, we were finally able to shoot our big "Pride Parade" for a special "Pride Weekend" episode of QAF on Tuesday. The weather couldn't have been better. Sunny and warm bordering on hot. A great cheat for a June day that we were shooting in October. I'm sending a few photos of the day for Annie to post somewhere in this magical realm she's created. We worked from about 7 am 'til just past midnight. The huge crowd of extras seemed to have a great time. Amazingly their energy and the energy of our incredible crew never flagged. It felt like an actual parade at times. The "leather boys" wer constantly cheering me up (and frightening me a little) with shouts of: "We love you, Ted!" ... as well as other things I can't print here.
Wednesday I left at 6:30 am for a trip down to NYC to help out in a fundraiser with The Empire State Pride Agenda for victim's relief. Strange to be flying again. The airport in Toronto was deserted (but that may have been more because of the ungodly hour I was flying at) and there were about 5 people on my flight. I checked in my one bag just to play it safe and so as not to have to deal with the possible humiliation of having them open my bag at the security check-point and have everyone see my Curious George® and Superman© boxers. While waiting at the gate my name was called over the loudspeaker system to come to "The Counter" and my mind instantly ran through every item I had packed to see what embarassing thing they were going to haul me down to "The Room" and interrogate me about. "Please let it not be my 'Home of the Whopper' underwear," I prayed. Turns out they only wanted to thank me for flying "Business Class" with them (no sweat since Showtime™ was picking up the tab) and to invite me to enroll in "The Admiral's Club." "Sounds kinky," quoth I, "sign me up!" Finally I boarded. The pilot came out and spoke to us before the flight in a very somber fashion. He thanked us for flying with them and explained some of the new rules (ie. less time with seat belts unfastened light on, staying out of the aisles, only one person at a time waiting for the toilet by the cockpit, harder to open peanut bags) and that as wonderful as our flight attendents are and as much as they are here to help us, there may come a time that they need OUR assistance. So I hopped right up and sold some extra headphones I had for 5 bucks a pop and felt pretty good about myself.
As I was driven into the city from the airport I got my first view of the new New York skyline. The Empire State is once again the tallest structure and from it's height down to the end of the island ... nothing. A big gap. Not the skline I grew up with AT ALL. My breathing tightened just at that sight. I checked into the "W Hotel" at 39th and Lex. (loooooove those "W's") and met my best friend from growing up, radio documentarian and MacArthur Genius Grant winner David Isay, for lunch down in Soho near his office (check out his web site in my links area). So good to see him. Always my main connection to New York. He told me of his experiences on 9/11 and said he hopes to never see or hear such horrific things again in his life. The city filled with the sounds of people screaming is something he will never forget. After some calamari and chicken parmagiana I made my way down LaFayette towards "Ground Zero." The smell is something awful. My eyes stung. The city (already noticibly quieter than I have evr known it) gets quieter still. You can look down the side street and see twisted metal, burnt out buildings. It looks like Bosnia and so many war-torn places that have always seemed so far away when viewed on television. The shops on the nearby streets are now odd museums to the events. Their windows must have gotten blown out and all the ash and debris from the fallen buildings have coated all the goods and display cases inside in inches of white ash. It's like Pompeii. Frozen in time. People enter the shops and take photographs like at some ancient ruin. Futher up LaFayetta a bay of ATM's that have been covered in plastic become shrines from people to write their thoughts in prose and poetry. Flowers are stuck in barricades. I walk all the way back up to the hotel stunned but glad to have seen it with my own eyes. It finally seems real to me.
The night that followed was a perfect tonic. I went to see my friend Anjali Bhimani in the extraordinary play "Metamorphoses" at the Second Stage at 43rd and 8th (212-246-4422). Based on the texts of Ovid it presents several tales from ancient mythology (a love of mine) in a visually beautiful and often hilarious way and explores how we can continue to love in the face of great adversity among may other things. It's the work of the gifted Chicago director (and another Genius Grant winner) Mary Zimmerman. I had seen it in LA (after it had already been in Chicago, Seattle and Berkely) already but it still had a powerful and healing effect on me. See it if you can. Great live theatre ... nothing beats it!
This has gotten quite long, so I'll continue with my New York adventures in the next b-log (what the hell does that word mean anyway?) and tell you all about the amazing and moving time I had at the fundraiser Thursday night and how it relates to Mayor Giuliani possibly doing a walk-on on QAF! Will he be in drag again? Tune in next time ...

JOURNAL: OCTOBER 14, 2001

NYC pt 2.
After a day of visiting with other New York buddies I attended the Empire State Pride Agenda's annual Fall dinner (the main purpose of my trip). Ron Cowen (co-creator, Executive Producer/Writer of QAF and friend) was in attendance with me. The event was quite extraordinary. It was held at the gi-normous Sheraton Hotel and after we spent a half-hour in a room with a lot of caterers sitting around watching over a lot of food covered with saran wrap we realized that we were in th wrong room and finally found the pre-dinner cocktail party. There were over 1,100 people attending the event but Ron and I were fortunate to meet a half-dozen or so gay and lesbian police officers and firefighters. Extraordinary men and women all. Brave enough of them to be openly gay in such stereotypically homophobic orginizations, let alone to be faced with the enormous loss and dnager of the current situation in the city. Most had lost friends and colleagues close to them. After working to process all I had witnessed the day before meeting these brave men and women was an absolute honor for me. That they were so open and welcoming of Ron and I meant so much that night. For Det. Vivian Rodriguez to proudly show us pictures of the son she shares shares with her partner and let us know how much our show means to her (thoughts also expressed by a number of her fellow officers and firefighters) touched us more than any other tribute that night could have.
As the cocktail party continued I was fortunate enough to meet Gov. Pataki, who beside being incredibly tall looked as if he had just been introduced to his 12 billionth person but remained warm and the possibly soon-to-be next Mayor of New York, Mark Green. I also ran into a dear old friend from College who I hadn't seen since graduation, Eddie Castell, who is now working for the new NYC Comptroller. After the dinner I also ran into Benjamin Krevolin who had been a member of the theatre company that I originally moved out to Chicago to help start (called "The Anathong Ensemble" for you trivia buffs out there). As full as my heart was that night it damn near started a flood in seeing such "long lost" friends.
The dinner that followed continued the high. I arrived a little late from the cocktail party (along with the amazing Jackie Ioachim from Showtime® who hates having her name mentioned) and stood at the back of the room waiting to be seated while a wonderful gospel singer roared out "America the Beautiful." The group of police officers who stood in front of us held hands and/or hugged shoulders and, swaying with the music, sang along. We joined in with them and almost started to cry. Afterwards we were seated down near the stage. Marlo Thomas was the host for the evening and she was, dare I say it, That Girl! Ron and I were there to help auction off a walk-on part on QAF. It had been decided, however, that there would actually be two auctions. The first would be for a walk-on part for Mayor Giuliani (since he is renowned for dressing in drag). The money raised in that auction would go towards Giuliani's Twin Towers Fund for victims families. We raised $100,000.00! Zoinks! God bless the donors. [as a side note, when Giuliani finally arrived at the dinner he announced that he would actually do the walk-on if they could get the bid up to $200,000.00. The ESPA is currently working to make that goal.] The second auction was for the ESPA and after tempting the crowd with the prospect of "delicious" catered meals on the set consisting of "some kind of meat in a brown-ish sauce" we managed to raise an additional $32,500.00. Not a bad take for one night of "whoring." And I wasn't even sore after.
Both Gov. Pataki and Mayor Giuliani gave wonderfully moving speeches. Mayor Giuliani mentioned the fact that as right as it is that we are so focused on the numbers lost at the WTC on Sept. 11th we have lost sight of the fact that over 25,000 people were saved that terrible day. The Govenor and Mayor also unknowingly made the same exact point from different perspectives (Pataki speaking from the perspective of people fleeing the building looking towards the heroes rushing in to save them; Giuliani from the perspective of those rushing in looking towards those they wished to save) and it's a thought I will leave you with. During those awful moments no one was looking at each other, rescuer or victim, and wondering "Gee, I wonder if he/she's straight or gay or black or white or Latino or Asian or Christian or Muslim or Jew?" We waste so much time worrying about these things, but when it comes right down to it, at those moments of life or death decisions none of these things truly matter. We're all here to help each other and to be helped by each other. Let THAT be the legacy of this tragedy and we can truly start to heal.
And we can start by all making pudding for each other. Mmmmmmmmm, puuuuuudding *drooling*.
Here endeth the lesson.
Peace,
Scott Lowell

JOURNAL: OCTOBER 20, 2001

Just a brief log this week as I am heading back to Los Angeles for a week-long hiatus from QAF. The first two months of shooting has been a challenge. The second season is in many ways harder than the first. Last year no one, including myself, knew what to expect from our show. After the explosion of last season, expectations are much higher and with that comes the pressure to not only repeat last year's successes but to better them. After a somewhat stressful return to work in August, we're back to having just as much fun filming as we did last year. I wondered what territory our creators Ron & Dan and the writing staff would have left after last season - - especially what new humiliations they would come up with for Ted ;o) - - yet their delightfully twisted imaginations continue to plow new fields and have kept us delighted as much as I hope fans of the show will be when they see the new episodes in January.
Of course with all this extra effort to better ourselves comes exhaustion and so I am VERY glad for this break. I don't know HOW we did it last year (especially our incredible crew)! We shot from early July straight through to mid-December without a break. The cast gets an occasional day off here and there, but our crew is there EVERY day for every minute of the 14 - 18 hour days we put in and it wasn't really until the week before our Holiday Break last year that any of them got the least bit grouchy. They are truly an extraordinary bunch. Without them the show would not be what it is. So to them more than anyone I say: "Happy Fall Hiatus, eh!"

JOURNAL: OCTOBER 30, 2001

Back up North after an exhausting but fulfilling week in LA. I met with half a dozen wonderful and crazy Casting Directors all of whom I hope to work with in the near future. I also taped an appearance on a wacky new show called "Rendez View". If you haven't seen it, it's a combination of "Politically Incorrect" and "Blind Date". It's hosted by the hilarious Greg Proops and the spunky Ellen Ladowsky and basically we sit around and make snide remarks about a couple of hotties on a blind date. Well, I got off to a good start by mentioning that I thought the girl (a dead ringer for Traci Lords) looked familiar and that I thought I'd seen in her on some videos in the "back room" of the video store. The Legal people at Paramount didn't like that so we had to re-tape that segment. Ooops. The very funny Mo Collins (of "Mad TV") was my co-panelist and she was given the task of disputing everything I said. It was hard to do, I won't kid ya. You get to see the date a minute at a time and you have to find something going on in there that will give you something funny to say. The girl was insane, but you can't just focus on that for half-an-hour so I found myself looking for weird things going on and ignoring what they were babbling about. Alas, that left me a little lost when we talked about "the issues" of the date. But I did mention that I thought she was chewing an awful lot ON HER PUDDING!!! Okay, it turned out to be onion soup but it looked like PUDDING!! I also thought the guy was a male nurse when he was a lawyer and ... I guess I just screwed EVERYTHING up. But the audience made up of angry 17 year olds REALLY seemed to like me ... when I was given bite-sized Snickers® to throw them that is. I felt like sleeping for a week afterwards. No, really I had fun. I'll let you know when it airs so you can see my public humiliation for yourself.
On Saturday I got together with a bunch of my friends in Pan Pacific Park to play a game of Kickball©. I'm making it my life's task to make Kickball© our new national past-time. It combines all the great American sports: Baseball, Bowling, Dodge Ball and Running-Like-Hell. It's a sport anyone can play remotely well (even IF the title of my autobiography is going to be "Picked Last for Kickball©") It does not discriminate and truly brings a persons strengths and weaknesses glaringly to the surface in a noble struggle. We played for hours on end and I don't know when I've laughed so hard or ached so much the next day. When we finally took a break, our field was usurped by a Capture The Flag™ Club. I kid you not, they had "Flag Club" T-shirts and everything. They explained to me that our field was their usual field and that they had been waiting for us to finish. I told them that I had always played Capture The Flag™ in the woods. Seems kind of pointless playing it in a wide-open field. But, hey, they had the T-shirts so who the hell am I? I'll tell you the game just doesn't have the panache of Kickball©. Do yourself a favor. Get yourself a red playground ball, gather 12 - 20 of your friends and get a game going this weekend. You'll be glad you did.
Also, while back in LA I sorted through my many scrapbooks I've been keeping since I was twelve and brought a heap of photos tracing my "career" as an actor back to Toronto with me. I've scanned them all and sent them to my Web Wench, Annie. She'll be posting them little by little in order to lure you back to the site week after week. So if you want to see some humiliating pictures of me (as well as some damned fine ones) keep coming back, ya hear?
Speaking of Annie, this Sunday is her birthday. Make sure you inundate her with warm birthday wishes. She deserves 'em.
Peace.
Scott

JOURNAL: NOVEMBER 5, 2001

Well, so much for rest and recreation! The week back from hiatus pretty much has drained any good the week off might have done us up here. We ended up the week wrapping up our Friday shoot at 4 AM Saturday morning. That's how over-time we got as the week progressed. "But, Scott," you might say, "at least you got the weekend of to catch up on sleep." Alas, O gun-jumper, it was not to be. For we had to shoot promotional material for Showtime® all weekend long. You know, the big teaser commercial for the start of the second season as well as those little in between thingys where you'll see one of us saying with a wry look on our face: "You're watching Showtime®. No Limits™." It ended up being quite a cool shoot and I felt like a big crazy rock star ... in my own personal way. The set was a gigantic mock up of a Lite-Brite© as the background and a black, high-gloss floor underneath us. We each were a different color of the rainbow so that when we were all on the set at once ... My color was green. The camera swooshed around, some stuff was shot in slow-motion, the music was funky. For a brief period of time I was cool. I was hip. A pop star in the making. I was: "Sco Lo." I think the spots should come out pretty well. I'm the 5 days before and 2 days before cuckoo clock countdown message on the network before the premiere on January 6 (I'll let you do the math as to what days that would be.) I'll be in concert in a mall near you shortly after! Hee-hee-haw! Now where can I get a nose job ...

JOURNAL: NOVEMBER 12, 2001

Okay. I'm a freaky gadget geek. We all have our little addictions - - drugs, alcohol, clothes, boots, chocolate covered ants. Whatever. I have a penchant for shiny, new-fangled, buzzin' and whirrin' electronic gadgets. Unfortunately this addict met the ultimate pusher YEARS ago in a company called Apple®. Those rat-bastards know just how to get me. The design, the packaging ... it's all so space-aged and sexy and **drooling**. Over the years, even when I couldn't really afford it, I HAD to have the latest, coolest Apple® product out there. Well, now they've done it again with the iPod©. If you don't know what it is, go to their web site (www.apple.com) and see it and see if it doesn't do more for you than any amount of naked volleyball videos could do. I, myself, was unaware of this nifty little product until 2 weeks ago but I became obsessed with having one once I saw it's image rotating at me on the Apple® Home Page. It was just released yesterday. It's a 5 gigabyte MP3 player with a 10 hour rechargeable battery. It is smaller than a deck of cards and can hold 1,000 songs on it. 1,000 SONGS!! And it's digital so it doesn't get all skippy like my Sony™ Discman (circa 1995) does when I walk in my spastic lopey way. I can put almost all of my favorite songs from my entire collection onto this one little machine and carry it around with me and listen to ANY song WHENEVER I want! Needless to say I used every but of cunning I had to find the one store up in Canada that hadn't sold out their first shipment and pre-ordered with them earlier in the week. They called on Friday and told me I could come pick it up Saturday morning. Like a kid on Chrismas Eve - - or at least what I imaginge a kid on Christmas Eve must go through, with Channukah the prospect of another pair of socks or a belt on the 6th or 7th day never did much for me -- I struggled to sleep. Barely able to wait until the store opened in the morning. When it did, I hopped on my bike and tore through the streets of Toronto to my new love. There she was waiting for me in a box ALMOST as cool as the treat that awaited inside. Man, They even BOX the things all sexy like! Damn you, Steve Jobs and your den of electronic pimpery! Needless to say I've been spending every free minute downloading songs from my CD's into this little honey. I'm already at 468 songs and I haven't even gotten to my Elvis Costello stuff yet. Now I look for excuses to go on a walk JUST so I can bring my little iPod© with me. "Oh, no. I'll walk to Chicago and get you a REAL stuffed Pizza!" If you see me one day, all strung out, filthy and half-dressed on the street beseeching people for "a spare Powerbook©" just push me under the wheels of the next UPS truck that is driving by. Please? Thanks.
My downloading was interrupted yesterday for two events. In the afternoon I attended a panel discussion and Q&A session at the Gay Life and Style Show at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The cast and producers of QAF were all there (minus Gale and Sharon) and we had a blast. We honestly have such fun with each other and when we get into a crowd like that the big old hams in all of us can't help but surface. It was wonderfully moving (as always) to see so many fans and feel their appreciation for our efforts on the show. It was amusing to gaze out at the huge exposition going on there as well and see what "Gay Life and Style" was all about. In front of us: The Lube Booth. To our left: Erotic Leather. To our right: Wine!
Later that night I walked over (with my iPod©) to Michelle Clunie's fabulous loft apartment (the envy of anyone who has seen a "Brat Pack" movie) to have dinner with the cast, producers and writers of QAF (up from LA for a visit) and watch a sneak-preview of episode 2 of the second season. All false modesty aside: Wow! What a wonderful show I work on and what a tremendously talented group of people I work with. The dinner was followed by a party opened up to all our incredible crew of the show and ... well, when I left the party at 3 am I believe the line dancing had begun. Thanks, Michelle. It was quite a **passing out with a thud**.
On Friday night I went to go see a terrific film with Gale called: Together. My friend David Isay had recommended it to me and, as always, he was right. It's a Swedish film that takes place in a commune in the mid 70's. It started off a little slowly and at first we were a little worried, but it soon sucked us in with its completely unique characters and situations and a pseudo-documentary film style. If you can find it go see it. And if it's playing close to where you live, walk there ... hopefully with a nifty iPod© tucked in your pocket, bopping your head to one favorite song after another.
(Do you think I've sucked up enough now to Apple®? I'm hoping they'll make me one of their 'ho's.)
Peace.
Scott

JOURNAL: NOVEMBER 21, 2001

Well, it's Thanksgiving eve ... at least for everyone down in America. You see, up here in Canada they got their Turkey Day out of the way back when we were pretending to celebrate Columbus bumping into our continent. So while you all gorge yourselves on stuffing, green bean casserole (With Durkee® French Onion topping) and cranberry sauce still molded in the shape of a tin can think of your poor American QAF cast members stripping their souls (and butts) naked for your entertainment pleasure in the winter. Well, not SO poor. I am truly thankful to have such a wonderful job and I couldn't imagine a better group of friends to be "stranded" with over a holiday than this cast or crew or producers. Fortunately I will be able to fly down to Connecticut this weekend and join my mom and sister in a bit of Thanksgiving revelry ... although part of me can't help but remember the one Thanksgiving where my mom made Beef Stroganoff instead of Turkey and worry as to what will await me on Saturday evening. Well, I'll be thankful just to be down there ... especially after the two hour flight in the little 40 seat propellor plane I'm flying down in. Yikes! Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, the Big Bopper and ME???? Let's hope not. I am also quite thankful for the support of all of you who come visit this site. Whether it's to stare at some new crazy photo of me with a bad hair-do or read my ramblings or just to see if somehow an accidental picture of Gale Harold made it's way onto my site, I appreciate you making me feel wanted.
Today is also my niece, Rebecca's 11th birthday. I cannot believe she is already 11. Seems like yesterday when I was taking her to see her first play (a production of "101 Dalmations" in Omaha, Nebraska) now she's practically a nuclear scientist. Life sometimes seems to be passing at such a blinding speed that I am afraid to blink. Saw a trailer for the 20th Anniversary showing of E.T. 20 YEARS?!?!? My God. Time is ephemeral.
Now onto newsworthy things: Looks like I'll be taping "Open Mike: with Mike Bullard" up here in Toronto on December 4. Mike is Canada's answer to David Letterman. It'll be my first "talk show" so I'm really looking forward to it. Any Toronto fans should try and stop on by the studio at CTV. Also, we should be hearing any day now as to where we're going to be shipped off to during our January promotional tour for the show and season 1 DVD. Just shot a QAF set tour for Showtime® this morning with Peter Paige. I guess it will air as filler when some soft-core film ends before an hour is up. We had a lot of fun pretending that we really didn't get along, sniping at each other as soon as the other one was away from the camera... at least I was pretending ... hmmm ... Anyway, went to go see David Mamet's film HEIST the other day. The movie was pretty good, but even better was seeing the trailer for OCEANS 11 and seeing my buddy Eddie Jemison up there with Clooney, Pitt, Damon et al. I am so proud of him and the film actually looks like it's going to be a lot of fun. Can't wait to see it when it opens on Dec. 7! Hope you all catch it. He plays Livingston Dell, the computer techie of the heist team. After the film you can fight amongst yourselves as to who wants to start HIS fan site.
Happy Thanksgiving to you all!
Peace!
Scott

JOURNAL: NOVEMBER 29, 2001

Well, there was no Beef Stroganoff at my Mom’s, only a delicious turkey, ‘taters, fresh green beans (no Durkee®), cranberry sauce (not from the can but home made with orange peels and dried cherries - - go, Mom, GO!) apple crumble pie, my sister and a surprise dining guest. Not only is my mom an excellent cook but she’s a sneakster as well! She had secretly invited my music teacher from Elementary school who has also been a friend of the family for years, although I had not seen her since 1987.
Her name is JoAnn Wich and she is one of those enigmatic people who effected great change and growth in me at a young age. She was in charge of the instrumental music program at Beecher Rd. School, which I attended from 1st through 6th grade. This means she had the unenviable task of turning kids on to an instrument and then (even more frightening) turning them into a squeaking, squawking, clanking amalgamation of a band. Mrs. Wich did this with endless patience, calm encouragement and a sense of joy with each baby-step you would make (that made you want to learn faster and harder). She had a wonderful way of letting you find the instrument that was right for YOU. In 4th grade we started with the trumpet, which I probably picked because my brother was playing at the time and taking lessons from JoAnn’s husband, Bill. Alas, after only a few lessons, I got my first set of braces and I had to bid farewell to that instrument. My next sojourn was the piano. Now, this was more of a homespun idea. My brother was already quite good on the piano (multi-instrument show off!), my sister was well on her way to becoming the virtuoso she would be and my parents had recently bought a fancy new Steinway© Baby Grand for us to play on. What choice did I have (especially with a mouth full of wires)? Well, after 4 lessons and while I was attempting to plunk out the theme from “Dragnet” while I was supposed to be warming up our crazy teacher, literally, picked me up with his hands ‘round my throat, tossed me out of the room and informed me that there would be “no more lessons!” Humph. Finally the braces came off and Mrs. Wich suggested the French horn. I can still remember learning to play “Beautiful, Beautiful Brown Eyes” with her gently tapping out the rhythm. When it became clear that I had found the voice for my inner song she passed me on to her brother, Chuck Baxter who is an extraordinary Horn player and was part of the Eastern Brass Quintet with JoAnn’s husband, Bill. Playing the Horn became an important part of my creative development and life throughout Jr. and Senior High school. I remember vividly the enormous fear I had at playing solos in recitals (the slightest quiver of your lip and you sounded like a dying duck in heat) and how playing in an orchestra made me feel like I was part of this amazing music machine. I am so grateful to have experienced the joys of music through my Horn playing and I have JoAnn Wich (and Chuck Baxter) to thank for that. I often wish the Horn were an easy enough instrument to just pick back up and start playing Mozart Horn concertos whenever I wanted. Alas, my lip is a puny remnant of what it was back in 1983 (when I last TRULY played it) and I fear it would take months and months (if not years) of work to get it back into shape. Maybe there will come a time in my life when I have that kind of time and can reconnect with the Brass again.
In the meantime, I am extraordinarily proud of the fact that JoAnn has since become the head of the choir at my former prep school, Hopkins Grammar Day Prospect Hill School, founded 1660. She has been able to turn what was, while I was there, a talented but under-funded and under-motivated group into a worldwide force! Her talents as a teacher and her strength to fight “The Man” for the sake of “her kids” has found a true home and her success is a tribute to how many lives she has touched over the years.
I feel quite fortunate that I was able to tell her so much of this over the past weekend. It’s something we should all do for all of those who have taught us. Let them know: “I couldn’t have done it without you.”
So, thank you, JoAnn. And thank you, Mom for all your hard work in putting together a wonderful meal and for giving me such an incredible gift.
Peace.

JOURNAL: DECEMBER 10, 2001

It's been a crazy week and a few days since last I wrote. Shooting has been fast and furious as we head towards our Holiday break on the 22nd. Days have been ending at 3, 4 and 5 am the following mornings as the current episode is a bit of a "monster". I'm anxious to have the episodes start to air (although I've only seen the first 2 myself at this point) to see how the audience takes to the 2nd season. There's a new energy to the show after the first couple of episodes and I hope everyone will like the direction it's going. Hard for us to tell being in the middle of it, so in some ways we're as eager for January 6 to roll around as the fans of the show are.
Speaking of fans, it was wonderful to have a little gaggle of 'em out at my taping of Open Mike: with Mike Bullard last week. It was a bit surreal being on a talk show like that - - I feel like I had a prototypical experience. I was the first guest and then after me ... ANIMALS FROM THE ZOO! I swear I felt like I was tripping and hallucinating that I was on an old episode of "The Tonight Show." There was the standard moment of one of the animals getting a little wacky and jumping on the host’s desk and causing mayhem as the audience rolls with laughter and the guests shrink in horror. Rupert Pupkin and me, living out our talk show fantasies. It really was a lot of fun and Mike was a wonderful host in all senses of the word. The whole staff there at the show is great, as a matter of fact. My segment producer, Ben Rotterman, was a hoot - - there was part of me (and him I think) that wanted him to actually be an 80 year-old ex Catskill comedian rather than a producer. I was a bit nervous to do the show as I'm never quite sure if the stories I have to tell are interesting to anyone but me ... and yet no one fell asleep. Whew. There were moments, however, when I forgot that I was the guest and not just watching the show and I would sit back and just laugh at Mike's jokes and then remind myself: "Oh, yeah ... you need to SAY something! That's why you're here." I could have talked a lot longer about my days doing warm-up for The Jenny Jones Show as it was one adventure after another there ... but my segment was only slotted for 8 minutes and the HAD to get to the animals, for God's sake! I got a lovely embossed coffee mug to take home, though. SO all is well. They're hoping I'll be able to visit them again before we wrap up here in April.
When I haven't been shooting and, you know, shmoozing on Canadian talk shows I've been working feverishly to finish editing my home movie of stuff I experienced last year making QAF. I want to give it to cast and crew as a Holiday gift. It's been great reliving the extraordinary times we went through during the first season. Just after we started shooting, Tony Jonas (one of our Executive Producers) said to us: "Savor this experience, the good and the bad, because who knows if ANY of us will ever experience something like this again in our lives." I went out and bought a video camera the next day. I shot on the set. I shot at our cast dinners, birthday parties and outings. I shot at the premieres in New York and LA. It was an incredible time. I DON'T know if I'll ever go through an experience like that again in my life. Tony was right. I thank him for saying that, because having this tape of a fraction of the experiences helps keep it alive for me - - and hopefully the cast and crew will feel the same way. I'm pretty lucky to have shared in that with so many wonderful people. As we trudge our way through the second season without all the excitement, adrenaline and nerves it's nice to be reminded of what we went through last year and how important it is that we're making this show.
Finally got to see OCEANS 11 on Sunday. Went with Peter and Randy and our friends Dede and Tera. It's a greatly entertaining movie and my friend Eddie (as the ever-sweaty Livingston Dell) just made me smile every time he was on that big ol' screen. If you haven't reached that stage in your life where you get to see some of the people closest to you in your life achieve their goals and start to come into their own after years of toiling away ... well ... you've got quite a treat coming to you. It's SO gratifying to see that nice guys (and gals) can and DO succeed without compromising their souls. It filled me with such "Naches" to see Eddie up there with George and Brad and Matt and the rest of Hollywood's "A list", holding his own and making his presence felt. You can visit the official web site for the movie (Oceans 11) to read more about him. Try and see the movie if you can. I think you'll have a good time. Even more importantly, tell a friend of yours who's struggling right now that you believe in him/her. It may lead to a wide smile on your face down the road.
Well, I'm just about done editing my movie so I'm going to get back to that. I want to have it finished in time for the big QAF Holiday party going on this weekend here in beautiful downtown Toronto. I'll let you know how it goes before I head off on vacation and disappear 'til mid-January.
Peace.
Scott

JOURNAL: DECEMBER 18, 2001

4 more days! 4 more days ‘til my holiday break begins and with it my first true vacation since1985! “How can that be,” you say? Easy. Here’s a recipe for never relaxing. First, move away from your family and where you grew up. This insures that every free week that you might get along the way NEEDS to be spent traveling to see family members and friends because it’s been at least 6 months or a year (or more) since you’ve seen them and that’s just crazy. * note: it’s even better if family is spread across the country thereby insuring that you can’t see them all in “one fell swoop.”
Next, spend at least the first ten years of your adult life “just scraping by” so that you can’t really afford to go anywhere because rent ALWAYS seems to be due. *note: another helpful tip here is to buy a car that seems to know just when you’re “getting ahead of the game” so that it can choose that time to break down and need at least $1,000.00 worth of repairs.
Next, choose a profession in which you NEVER know where your next paycheck is coming from or if you’ll ever work again. This will force you to be CONSTANTLY searching for work even while you should be enjoying what you are currently working on. And you wouldn’t DREAM of going out of town, ‘cause what if you should miss an opportunity to try for another job that could be “the one”?!?!?
Finally after years of struggle move to a glorious city that seems like a vacation unto itself but in reality has a secret curse on it. The curse is that while you are there you search for work even harder. You’ll go months searching and searching with nothing happening. Scrambling for work and scrambling to see friends. Just when you feel like “I’ve been sitting on my ass for months” and you think it’s safe to go away (because nothing is happening after all) and are even so bold as to purchase a plane ticket to go somewhere - - BAM! You end up getting work or at least a bright prospect for it. SO you have to cancel that trip or at least cut it short. You may move to that wonderful sunny city, but once you do … YOU MAY NEVER LEAVE!
Follow this recipe exactly and I’m sure you’ll find yourself in the same predicament that I have been in. For extra insurance add in needing to buy a condo to off-set a very sudden rise in income and the fact that you are forced to work in Canada so you that you end up owing a kajillion dollars to the US government. This will positively insure that even when you KNOW you’ve got a job waiting for you and you can finally afford to go away … you CAN’T afford to go away anymore.
So, it is with a grateful sigh and an appreciation for all the blessings and good fortune in my life that I finally, after 16 years, head off to an island in the Pacific. Now I only hope I can remember how to actually relax.
I wish you all the happiest of holidays and as much joy and success as you can stomach in the New Year!
Peace!
Scott